A relationship style where two people are primarily committed to each other but leave room for occasional outside sexual encounters, often under agreed conditions. The couple stays the central unit while allowing limited flexibility at the edges.
Dan Savage popularized the term to describe couples who are mostly monogamous but permit the occasional threesome, hall pass, or casual hookup. People are drawn to it because it keeps the security and focus of a primary partnership without treating every outside attraction as a betrayal.
Worth knowing: Because the boundaries are custom rather than assumed, the health of the arrangement depends on both partners spelling out exactly what is allowed and revisiting those terms openly as feelings change.
Also called: monogamish relationship, mostly monogamous, flexible monogamy, sexually open but romantically exclusive, hall pass arrangement, occasional openness
